Last Goodbye

So it's my last blog. I want to end with a summary of how I thought the class was and how I believe it impacted me- whether it didn't or did for the worse/better. And how do I plan to apply what I learnt...if I learnt anything.

So firstly let me just say that this was my favourite and most hated class at the same time. (Oh and sorry if you think I spelt favourite wrong, I'm writing in British English because that is what I was taught...and I thought it would be easier to type this whole explanation instead of fixing it.)
I liked this class because I have never had such an open forum with people my age to just discuss what we believed and apply it to film. I also hated it for the same reason. Part of me was always thinking, there is only one Bible so how are there all these different views??
I do know that if there is anything I can take away from this class is that Christians do not have all the answers...and that's not a bad thing. Also it's great to have a friend around that challenges your thinking.

I do believe I'll have a slightly different goal for my films now- I have always wanted to challenge people to think but I wanted to do it in a way where it showed that Christianity had a the answers. I want to question stuff now, and join in the search for God's full truth.

Blind leading the blind?

Hey so these last few blogs I probably should have put up earlier to get like the debate feed back from my classmates but I'm a coward and didn't want them to be pointed out by Leeper and then I'd have to explain myself and stuff. So I have these thoughts that I'll be "Narcissistically" wrestling with myself for however long.
Anyway I had one main question that stayed with me throughout the semester starting from fridge and continuing on.
There was some discussion in class about the evangelical church and their Narcissistic way of confirming their ideas about Christianity off others who have the same mindset. We made the connection of this to secular works ..and you probably know where I'm going with this.
Why am I so against watching 'non-christian' content? Honestly I don't think it's about whether a Christian made it or not. I try to be very careful about what I watch. I just have this strong conviction that whatever I open myself up to when it comes to media. "All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial."
So saying we as Christians should watch a variety of art outside our little safety bubble for us to improve our art seemed a little bit off. Who's the Author of art? Not God, the one who created out of nothing? If I want to improve my art, why am I looking to the creation that is still figuring out the fact that it can create over the One who gave the talent to create?
Having said that, I just want to clarify. I don't think Christians should ignore the amazing work and talent that God has gifted those who are "lost". But I don't believe we should watch or consume any form of media once it's "good" art.
Oh well, maybe I'll just confirm my thoughts with a group of friends who'll never refute me.

Art is Useless

My last blog I mentioned Andy Crouch. We didn't read his book in class but I believe it relates a lot to what we have been discussing over the weeks with Christians and art.

In Andy Crouch's book he shows the uselessness of art. "Why have wallpaper when wallboard will do?" Why hang paintings on walls when it does nothing to improve the strength of the wall?

He states "I think that we Christians have made our peace, more or less, with useful culture." Christians only applaud movies that make the "call to salvation" at the end. They only see art as useful if it illustrates the Gospel story.

I believe this is why most Christians look skeptically to art- because they do not think it is useful. One thing that struck me too, from this chapter was the fact that he linked art to worship. How Christians view art is most likely the same way they view worship. Because worship and religion is useless. We cannot do anything to appease our God. God will love us no matter what. We cannot do anything to be holy. God gives us His righteousness. Basically nothing we do can earn us salvation, yet we still pray and worship. Worship is a type of art, expressing our gratitude to God for nothing in return.

"The real challenge for the church in its relationship to the arts is not to make some technical adjustments in how we do our art or how we pastor artists. The challenge is to discover Christ taking, blessing, breaking, giving....To rekindle our capacity to be beautifully unuseful to God.

Michel Jean Cazabon

Andy Crouch meets Flannery O'Connor

It's amazing how God orchestrates things. My Understanding the Christian Faith class is the class I have after this class.
It's perfect because I have two hours of lunch and homework after intro to DMA to be lost in my daze of thoughts trying to sort through the ideas thrown around in class and asking myself "is Professor Leeper really a Christian who worked on VeggieTales??" For the millionth time. After those two hours are up I usually walk into UCF late and still in some sort of trance. And the class almost without fail, usually explored the biblical side of the visual ideas I wrestled with in class. It refocused me- not in a way where I felt like I had it all figured out, but a reassuring way that reminded me that God has it all figured out.
Anyway all that to explain that we got Flannery O'Connor to read for our reading assignment recently and along with that reading we had to read an excerpt from a book by Andy Crouch. Firstly let's just say I now want to own a collection of O'Connor's work. The readings reminded me of the Gospel as Tragedy classes.
The story we had to read was a short story about a family going on vacation who eventually takes a short detour because of a small deception by the grandmother. They end up crossing paths with a murderer who kills them all with the aid of two boys with him.
It sounds so morbid, but the way Flannery O'Connor writes, it doesn't leave you in a sea of the hopeless. It left me pondering about why the characters responded in a certain way, what made them do it?

When is the line drawn?

So after these weeks of classes geared to confuse us, I have a lot of ponderings.
First I want to know, whete do we draw the line as Christians then. This coming from the overall attitude towards secular media. If we as Christians should watch movies once it engages us in a challenging conversation, does the value of the question in the conversation negate the command that was given in Phil. 4:8? (If u do not know this verse look it up).
I understand the argument against Christians who try to a surround themselves in a little gospel bubble. How are they supposed to effectively reach the world through that? They lock the world out and, in essence, ignore the mission that Christ gave us to preach the good news to the world.

But I honestly cannot watch a movie that has a sex scene and block that from my mind because the rest of the movie has a great and challenging message. You see to me, media is different from holding a conversation with someone face to face. If I see someone who is a drunkard, curses every other line, is openly gay but challenges a wrong mindset in the church and is honestly wrestling with issues while searching for truth, I will not turn the off button on him like I would do with a movie. I cannot interact with a movie. And what I see stays with me, influences me.

Or is it possible to have an active conversation with a director through my own films?

My main struggle is where would we as Christians draw the line between meditating on God's Word and loving the world- and when I say loving the world I mean loving those who have not decided to surrender their lives to Christ?

It seems those who feel free to listen to whatever music and watch whatever films they want are celebrated as opposed to the "religious" types who don't believe that they are holier because they only listen to worship songs, but who genuinely wants whatever they feed their mind with to be a reflection of the word of God. Those poor religious Christians who are missing out on life.

The Matrix

While reading the "One Baaaad Messiah" I kept reading and re-reading each line trying to decide whether the author was being sarcastic or whether they were being serious- really believed that Neo was better than Christ.
I did some research on the author and found it was from a website which was made as a forum for people to evaluate and wrestle with the ideas of different religions,politics and another major topic that I have forgotten. It was an interesting forum because people weren't doing the usual "religion slamming" but we're genuinely trying to review and understand them- at least that what it seemedlike from the one or two blogs I skimmed through.
So I'm leaning more to the side of believing that the article was written with an ironic tone to it. Why would all these Christians want to compare their Messiah to someone who is obviously the opposite to the character of Christ?

Sit back and Relax

After watching all the mind challenging short films throughout the weeks, I didn't enjoy the films played in class yesterday as much as I had expected. They seemed to fall flat. They were funny and entertaining but it just left me with a "meh" feeling. Come to think of it now, though, I don't think any of the short films we watched were animated.

I guess I have Professor Leeper to thank for destroying my interest in shallow movies. Now I will be analysing every movie I watch. I still will not be purposefully watching shows with a bunch of f words even if it is 'vital' in portraying the emotion for the scene. I guess I am the odd one who will find it a lot harder not to let those words come out of my own mouth the more I listen to them.

Nevertheless, I was still able to enjoy the last day of structured class for the semester. (Next class are the presentations which I am eagerly looking forward to- the topics that I heard sounded pretty interesting).

As I'm on the topic of relaxing films that require no thinking, here's a funny animated short that I found:

Music Videos and a Small Correction

So umm, yeah I'm going to be milking the topics we speak on in class because I need blogs- when you slack off you pay for it.

Anyway I just wanted to start my blog giving my opinion on someone else's blog. They were speaking to Professor Leeper's comment in class when he said we are a dysfunctional age when it comes to doing things with our hands (personally I don't think we're only dysfunctional in that sense but across the board). Anyway I just wanted to point out that a fish that's been caught in the middle of the net isn't going to think he's been trapped- he's just going to think the other fish are in his personal space. What I'm saying is when you're in the situation sometimes it's too close to home to see the whole picture. So while you might not be dysfunctional in that sense it doesn't mean that across the board everyone isn't.


So that aside, I decided I'll share one or two of my favourite music videos.

I found out about Stromae after going on a french class trip to Guadeloupe- for those who don't know that's an island which is a colony of France still- and Stromae's song "Alors on danse" was 'all the rage'. I looked up more of his music and stumbled across this music video. I thought the concept was pretty amazing. It's not very complicated but it conveys the soul of the song quite well- I think there are English subtitles.

Yeah this is another one of his videos- this does not have subtitles if I remember correctly, but the song basically talks about a woman who's fed up of how men have treated her and the chorus is basically "They are all the same". Which is also the title "All the Same".

Ok one last one- I decided to drop in a Christian music video to annoy Professor Leeper :). It's not very innovative for the most part- still just singers watching the camera and talking but I liked how they came up with the set. (This is not one of my favourite music videos but just throwing it in here).

Well hope it was fun watching!

Trussel and Paranoia

Driven by fear. I find it interesting that the reading we had, Joel Trussel said he never wanted to get comfortable in a job unless it was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. If it wasn't his dream job he was not going to stay and get comfortable. I find it amazing that he started all his work from a small basement with a not so hi-tech computer.

I loved his animation style which is strange because I usually gravitate to "cleaner" animation. Animation that looks realistic or visually appealing, I guess? But the characters still captivated my attention and the simple jerky style animation worked really well.

One interesting thing from the reading was that Joel Trussel said that when he works with music videos he's always second guessing himself, it's like an exercise in paranoia. Now I don't exactly think that's the right way for an artist to approach their work but it was interesting that someone who'd made it far from working in their basement, admitted that they have self confidence issues when it came to making content for music videos.

Since it's all about music video week I want to show you one of the first music videos I remember seeing that I thought was pretty good. I don't think it's as good as some of the ones we saw in class but I really liked it a few years ago. I still have no clue exactly what's going on in the video (so maybe you can enlighten me) but I still like it.

Hope you enjoy it!

International Films

Wooo! I love international films. I guess watching all these culturally different films in Leeper's class usually made me think of this. Every year the European film festival is like holiday time for me. I'm in the cinema as much as possible. Subtitles? Pfff, who cares? I'll read them and watch at the same time. Sometimes I don't even need to read it because the body language says it enough.

I guess the thing that amazes me most with international films is that no matter the language barrier or how different the country is from yours there is still a deep connection you can have with the film. I also love seeing how in different cultures people tend to deal with issues differently. Some cultures are more family oriented and the aunt, uncle, brother, cousin, (as Trinis say Tanty an' Nen Nen) are all called in to deal with the crisis together. Some cultures are more individualistic and its so amazing, for me, in being able to see the beauty in both.

Speaking of International films, I remember watching a dutch film once with my dad and sister that really stayed with me.

It's called "Cool Kids Don't Cry" and its a dutch film which followed the story of a girl who loved football (soccer) but had cancer. (I guess my family isn't cool cause we all cried.)

Anyway, I also really liked that film about the boy who visited the family who donated a heart for him. (I don't know why I never write down the names of these films!) It was simple and captivating.

Halfway mark!

Whew, must...do...another...blog...halfway...there.

Anyway, not so funny joke aside, I have not done a blog on documentaries as yet. I like to do this it seems, write outdated blogs on topics that everyone has moved on from, oh well.

So my short take on documentaries, firstly I really appreciate documentaries because it feels like you get an insider view on what's really happening in the situation. It feels like you're actually there seeing it first hand along with the camera. I always thought of documentaries as the most honest 'news' medium but the clip on the directors of documentaries said something that challenged the reason I love documentaries.

He basically said that documentaries were the most deceitful medium as people felt that it was reporting real life but in actuality you're only seeing what the director wants you to see.

I still believe documentaries are a pretty powerful medium that can really effect change, raise awareness of issues and, what I like most about it, explore cultures but that statement made me sit back and think I probably shouldn't swallow everything that documentaries portray as absolute truth.

One of the documentaries shown in class was about an animator, Ryan. I had actually seen that short before. It was creepy for me but also amazing. I love how he portrayed how various struggles in the artists life ate away at their being. You're no longer whole, pieces of you leave and you're never the same. It was such a strong image. For me it was more than just a documentary on the artist that was interviewed but a graphic representation of the struggles of artists.

Speaking of documentaries and culture, one of my professors from my previous university wrote a docu-drama about one of my favorite instruments. I still have to see it though so I have no idea whether it's good, it won awards so *fingers crossed*.

https://vimeo.com/98270966

Gaming

My first 'real' job was one of the best times I've ever had. I worked in a small animation studio. Five o'clock in the evening was game time. Work ended officially and we played video games until six.
I've always had a love for games but for some reason playing video games is considered as a time wasting hobby whereas watching movies isn't even though it is basically the same thing- 'wasting' time.

I loved the video played class yesterday...minus the cursing. It gave a real insight into the pressures of developing an indie game and the personal meaning that goes into it. I think I can finally sit down to play a video game and not feel guilty afterwards.

It just seems like the views of gamers are all very negative. They are the young guys- well most gamers are guys- who waste their lives sitting on the family couch getting fat...or skinny considering you don't really feel the need to eat when you're drawn into a new world of gaming. So seeing it from a different side, where the game developers were seeing the games as having a chance for them to connect with thousands of people, caused me to think more deeply about the impact video games have on audiences and the 'conversation' that they bring to the media world.

Essay Quiz 2

One of the short films we watched that stood out to me was Small Hands. I don't exactly know if it'll count as a film but even though we watched it one of the first few weeks of class and the animation and song still affects me. It was such a simple concept but I believe it was animated with so much power that it could impact anyone, especially those who'd been through a loss. This film, I believe, works for two readings we discussed in class. (Probably more but I only recall two right now). I think it ties in strongly to what we discussed about the church being reluctant to expose children to certain things. I don't know if Small Hands was geared towards children but I believe it should be. It expressed the pain of loosing a loved one without trying to throw answers, without trying to stop grief. I believe grief is probably one of the most difficult experiences children can go through and honest animation like this can be an avenue for them to express or explore grief. Also it wasn't a CGI, perfect duplicate of the real world but a simple stop motion short...although I don't know if 'simple' and 'stop motion' should ever be put in the same sentence. In essence the rough sometimes stiff movement of the characters didn't make it seem less quality wise from say, a Pixar short. I had never seen tragedy dealt like this short film, or music video, portrayed it and that stuck with me.

Animations of the world.

So I was sitting down at a table for lunch one day with my friend who's from China. Her Chinese friend joined us and as you might guess, they started  talking in Chinese. I had no idea what they were talking about. I ended up just sitting there nodding my head looking lost and laughing when they laughed, being serious when they were.

Imagine if their whole conversation was animated but still in a foreign language. It's just amazing how animation, no matter what culture creates it, can connect with anyone anywhere, because you're no longer viewing this person as one with a foreign tongue or culture but you're connecting with them through your emotions, every movement is a new depth of feeling that makes sense inwardly even if you can't explain exactly what's going on in the film.

This amazes me mainly for the reason that I think most aspiring Trini animators struggle with. I believed that no one would understand my work except for my small country. I wrongfully believed that my culture on screen wouldn't be able to connect with someone else's who's from a whole new world.

People spend their lives trying to imitate ''famous" people in order to be famous when the most people are elevated because they weren't like anyone else. Watching these artists films and the unique ways they expressed art and movement, seeing how it can impact me even when I can't fully explain it challenges me.

Unless...(Extra Credit)

"No matter how young they are, children are deeply concerned with so-called eternal questions: Who created the world? Who made the earth, the sky, people, animals?  ...Children think about and ponder such matters as justice, the purpose of life, the why of suffering. . . They are bewildered and frightened by death. They cannot accept the fact that the strong should rule the weak.
 
Many grownups have made up their minds that …one should accept the facts as they are. But the child is often a philosopher and a seeker of God." ~Isaac Bashevis Singer (as quoted from 'Imagining The Sacred: Spiritual Themes in Children's Media')

Immediately after reading this quote my mind instantly went to one of my favourite passages of scripture that I never fully understood.

Matt. 18: 1-5    

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said,Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever shall receive one such little child in my name receives me.

Unless we become like a child. Unless we realise that growing older doesn't stop the world from producing new mysteries in our lives that we will have to wrestle with. Unless we accept that we'll never have it all figured out. Unless we question what others accept as the norm.
I always like to think of children as wide eyed 'wonderers'. The plain becomes the intricate.
Why does this sense of wonder and contentment become absent in adults? Why is imagination frowned upon? Why is maturity paired with an attitude that exudes a false sense of wisdom?

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

And it's children that tend not to care how foolish they might look.

GooGoo Gaga Film Corporation

Enter, the world of the child. The world adults can tap into through media. Two types of children’s media; the goo goo gaga media and the stoop down to eye level media.

The goo goo gaga children’s films. We touched the topic in class. A film which either assumes that children are brain dead or the media that takes advantage of a child’s naivety just to see them smile so a company can get a profit. What a child is to them; a dolly to be left dusted regularly on a shelf, never moving, a simple being that cannot understand emotions. They speak to them with “baby talk” which reverses the child’s learning at worst and doesn’t grow learning at best. If the child is trying to speak, speak to them, don’t mimic them.

The Stoop Down to eye level children’s media. They don’t stand and tickle chins to please their own need to feel good that they made a child smile. They stoop down to the child’s height, looks in a child’s eyes and sees what they’re seeing. The new strange emotions they might be discovering or will soon discover, their simple wonder of the world and their hesitancy to the unknown. They see their individuality. They see their struggle to understand more and their desire for a fairy tale world. They challenge them to learn.

One sentence really stood out to me from the readings. It summed up Yuri Norstein’s beliefs when it comes to the creators of children’s media. “He thinks that only those who understand the psychology of children should make films for them: if one has sympathy and can play with them, one is able to look at the world their minds and eyes.”

Us vs Them

It seems like the underlying topic from all our classes so far has been about this us vs them mentality. The church vs the world. Good and perfect vs evil and lost.

I don't know much when it comes to the culture of American churches but I have seen some similarities with what Professor Leeper was saying with my church back home. It seems the problem is with the church's mindset to separate themselves from the 'secular' things (I put secular in quotation because Professor Leeper says he didn’t believe in the secular, which I’ll probably explore in another post).

It seems the majority of Christians, as they get saved, want to forget ever being ‘lost’. Even though they are still discovering each day the new way of life that Jesus laid out for us (can I even say ‘new’ way? It is technically the old way- the way God had predestined from the beginning). I like how Professor Leeper put it (which is saying a lot because I don’t usually fully agree with what he says). Disclaimer: I’m quoting him very loosely, but the essence of it I believe was this; we as humans are still searching for who we are- we forgot who we are supposed to be because of sin, we are no longer living the lives God has purposed for us.

It’s not hard to find Christians who put up a face like they have it all figured out. How are we as Christians supposed to connect with those who don’t believe if we see ourselves as above them? What right do we have to separate ourselves from those who haven’t chosen Christ and say we are better? It reminds me of Phil. 2:5-8:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

It’s a real challenge for me to not use my salvation as a power play,"I'm better you're not. I'm clean, don't you unclean person touch me!" It seems to make one feel more holy pointing out the flaws in others and yelling at them to change from a far. It's also a challenge to be real with my media, to ask questions that make even me uncomfortable, to open others up to really think about what Christ’s death and resurrection really means and how we are to react to it.

I do believe that believers should be very careful when it comes to the media they feed their mind with. I don’t believe we need to look at outside art to avoid narcissistic mentality, art started in the church, good art. Even to the designs of the temple, and it wasn’t from Israelites looking to the unbelievers for inspiration, it was from direct instructions from God. However I do think it’s important to understand that God didn’t use Pharisees to reveal Jesus but He used ordinary fishermen and ‘secular’ people.

Nothing New

Nothing is new under the sun.

Interesting the easy comparisons between Myths and fairy tales and God’s Word. Watching the similarities between God’s Word and stories intrigue me. Talking animals, bear heads with lion bodies, dragons can all be found in the Bible.

Seeing the mythical as a way of bringing someone to the Gospel is definitely a new concept for me. I grew up somewhat banned from fairy tale stories. Harry Potter was a definite no, never saw Lord of the Rings and I still would never sit down through a Twilight movie. Nevertheless it was amazing for me to see the Gospel as a fairy tale. The most enchanting story of a world ravaged by evil and redeemed in the most unexpected way. It adds a new admiration of the scriptures and my amazing King. Seeing God as a mystery is also discomforting for me, if it were possible, I’d probably be content with having God in my own box where I can fully understand him. This idea probably stemming from the curse of wanting to be in control, of wanting to have power over how other people are so that I never step out of my narrow, comfortable thatched roof hut.  But then I’ve always wanted to be a detective.

The Gospel as fairy tale was a concept I hadn’t thought of and I do disagree to some point with the mythical stories- no you’re not going to be demon possessed if you read it and yes like C.S. Lewis God can use them to reveal the beauty of the Gospel. However some stories like that can cause someone to use it to replace the real story. It’s how it’s used that is bad and that’s why I think people started going to the extreme and labelling it all as unholy and evil. Sometimes mythical stories encourage worshipping something that is not God, not something to show a part of God either but to worship ourselves or others. Also some stories elevate evil and turn it into something amazing. Witches are good once they use their powers properly. Sometimes the whole idea of having special power and owning magic stems comes from romanticising with the idea that we as humans can have greater power within ourselves without the need of God. At least in my opinion that is how the characters are created. It does stand to reason that in the Bible Satan is called the master liar and every time he used his deceiving powers in the Bible he always mixed truth in. In a way that’s how I see some mythical stories can end up being, stories with a little bit of truth but just enough lies to keep the viewer away from the truth.

So where mythical stories are involved, I believe it is important not to say all are evil but it is also just as important, to use Prof. Leeper’s words, to know what kind of conversation the director/ writer is trying to communicate with you.

Ponderings

Hey so this is about the two classes last week.

I come from some people might say a strict background. So obviously I was one of the ones - or the only one who was 'slightly' disturbed by the 'fridge'. The cursing in the film didn't feel put in for show, it definitely helped add a sense of reality to it to emphasize their situation, their emotions. But my question is, is that reason enough  to expose ourselves to f words? What is really the point? Should we as Christians just lock ourselves in a bubble and never view immoral stuff, shield our eyes and ears from things that are sins? I don't think so. Christ said be in the world and not of it. Everything Christ did was for God's glory. So is watching a film full of words that I'm not sure Jesus would ever mutter (how can blessing and cursing come from the same mouth?) be justified by the fact that the cursing was to bring home a point. Is it more important to follow the law and not listen to cursing than to see the message which mirrors the story of the good samaritan? Like the story professor Leeper told as an introduction to the film, they were more upset that he cursed than being horrified at the fact that they weren't doing anything about the millions of children that were dying of starvation.  Am I being a pharisee by thinking that I'm sure I could've leant that lesson without needing to hear cursing littered in between? Is it a benefit to expose ourselves to ungodly things to learn a godly message? Will u show a child a movie where people smoking is the norm because it teaches them not to steal?

I really enjoy this class because it really causes me to think. Every time I leave class I bring to mind what we discussed and ponder about what disturbed me the most or what was really eye opening and I really agreed with.  Last class we spoke about stories and pictures. I've always disliked watching 'Jesus' movies where they depict stories in the Bible (unless it was VeggieTales) so class really opened my eyes to why they seemed so devoid of meaning. If someone is really passionate about a subject shouldn't it show through their work? I think it's amazing how C.S Lewis helped me see the 'Jesus story' in a whole new way encouraging meet in my faith journey.

If only all 'Christian films' would have a depth of searching and honesty in them and a soul searching that connects with its audience.

Danielle Boxill

Hi, I'm a freshman and I am majoring in animation and film production.
I've always been interested in movies and the way media can impact an audience. I think I have always been captivated by films (especially animated ones) because I've always wondered what was happening behind the cameras. Trying to figure out how the films were made and observing the techniques in the film that really brought it out, is usually what goes on inside my head while watching movies. I have also been very keen on wanting to learn film to use it as a means to tell the world about Christ. One fit a really deep message into a 5 minute film without words and it will have way more impact on a human being than maybe saying the same message with words.
These first few classes have been pretty thought provoking for me as a result. It was really interesting to discuss the way we as Christians have used films so far to witness and the reasons why it may not be an effective way. One thing that really stood out to me was the statement that Christians sometimes portray themselves as having it all together and knowing all there is to know, adopting a mindset (or being mistaken with having the mindset) where they are better than 'those sinners'.
It got me thinking why these films might be giving this message, how do we show a love for unbelievers while showing them Christ and what the Bible says. And should we be so concerned about the way the world views us saying that Christ is truth and all else is lie? Because sometimes the Truth is hard to swallow and no matter how lovingly we state it people will still reject it.